Happy Birthday, Princess!!! (Part 1)

Five years ago (11:30pm, on Oct. 13th), I was in the hospital, trying to sleep, but waking up every five minutes, literally.  I'd fall asleep and then wake up and look at the clock and only five minutes had passed.  This went on for hours.  

Then child birth interrupted my unpleasant night's sleep and after some really hellish hours, our little, sweet pea was born. 

She immediately had everyone ohhing and ahhing over her.

I can't believe how she's grown. 

She was born at 8am on October 14th, with loads of dark brown hair.  I love that I was conscious this time and was able to hold her immediately.  We snuggled and kept each other warm.  It was true love!

We all loved her instantly.

Taylor looking soooooo excited for her blessing day.

She was blessed to gain a testimony of her own, which she has.  I'm sure it will continue to grow as she does.  She was also blessed with health, strength, keen intellect and patience.  She has all those things, except maybe not so much patience... yet. 

She was also blessed to be curious to know of the world and the gospel and to strive to study and learn about them.  And she does have a great curiosity and loves to learn.  It's wonderful. 

Taylor at 6 months.  Her hair quickly lightened to a redish, brown).

At 6 months, she was rolling over, laughing, smiling, eating rice cereal, spitting out rice cereal, crawling, pulling herself up on shelves, working on sitting up all by herself and had 4 tiny teeth.  

10 months old, and taking her first steps.
She says dada, nana and mama.

Happy Halloween.  One year old.

Her favorite book, for the longest time, was Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton.

One & a half years old and her hair is getting even lighter, and longer.  She also knows tons of sign language at this point, which was very helpful.

My blonde, little 2-year-old.

At this age, Taylor was already trying to do everything Logan was doing.  She also loved cars, trains, Dora, climbing on tables and chairs, coloring with crayons, playing with Logan, going to nursery, going on walks, going to the park and talking, talking, talking.


She hated taking naps and being told it was time to stop coloring.

Rock on!

Puzzling & Killing Two Birds With One Stone

Another thrift store puzzle; another puzzle missing just one piece.

Our homemade weather vane.

We've been studying about weather recently and so we made a couple of weather vanes and a rain gauge.  They were fun little activities.  I think we'll keep track of the amount of rain in a graph and turn it into a math lesson too.  Two birds, one stone. Yes!

Here's our rain gauge. 

The kids are very excited to see it rain now.  Logan keeps asking if he can go check the rain gauge.

We also have started reading "Story of the World" for history.  We read about the Byzantine Empire and their great domed church the Hagia Sophia, with it's mosaics.  

So we decided to make our own mosaics too.

The kids enjoyed it and it's art too.  Two birds, one stone. Love it!

Columbus Day

We have been reading about Christopher Columbus recently.  Yesterday was Columbus Day, so in honor of Christopher I'll share a few of the things I learned about him this last week. 

1. He actually made land on October 12th (first sighted land on the 11th).

2. He landed in the Bahamas, which is technically North America, just not North America as I think of it.  He then went on to other islands, including Cuba.

3. Long before sailing west and discovering a New World, he was  shipwrecked 6 miles off the coast of Portugal.  He swam/floated/kicked his way to shore and then stayed in Portugal for the next 9 years.  

4.  He married a woman of noble birth 2 years after arriving in Portugal, thus enabling him to go to the King of Portugal for financial support of his voyage west.  He was refused the support though, so then Columbus went to Queen Isabella of Spain, who didn't agree to it immediately either. 

5. Columbus captained the Santa Maria, the slowest, largest ship of the 3-ship fleet.  It was also the only ship that didn't make it back, it ran aground on a reef and sank. 

6. Martin Pinzon captioned the Pinta, the fastest of the three ships.  He was a renowned sailor and it is said that Columbus wouldn't have made it to the New World if it hadn't been for Pinzon.  In parts of Spain, he is considered the co-discoverer of America.  

7. Columbus went on multiple voyages to the New World and back again, not just that first one.  Christopher Columbus had been named Governor-General and Viceroy over all the lands he discovered.    

Reading

Logan's been working on reading a particular book all summer...

well, I'm not sure how long, exactly, but it seems like a long time.  

It's the 93 page book, "Bionicle: Makuta's Revenge"  Sounds serious, huh?  It had lots of hard words in it too, like Makuta, and Toa Nuva, krana-kal, Wairuha, concentration and determination, which it took a lot of to finish this book.  

Reading the last page!

Logan's great at reading, but he doesn't enjoy it as much as, say, playing.  So we're very proud of him for sticking with this book and finishing it.  

Me: Logan! You just finished that whole book!!!! 

Logan: Whoo-hooo!!!!! (and lots of yelling and jumping around)

Way to go, Logan!  I hope you find more books that you will love to read.  Any suggestions on books, that an active 7-year-old boy won't be able to put down?  He probably doesn't want to see another Bionicle book for a very long time. 

He's already read the Henry and Mudge books.  I've read The Magic Tree House books to him; they didn't hold his interest long enough to finish them.  He did recently start a long-term reading project in reading the Book of Mormon, but that will be additional reading.

Taylor is working on a junior novelization (chapter book) called, "Barbie as the Princess & the Pauper."  She loves reading and is usually very willing to read to me whenever I ask.  

She's read 233 books this year, so far.  Mostly short, little books.  But she's also read a lot of level 2 books, even a couple of level 3 ones.  

Reading to my kids is the one thing I do well.  I may not feed them the healthiest food or give them an allowance or enough chores, but I love them and read to them.  I hope they will love reading too and be life-long readers and learners. 

Singing in the Rain

The rains have come.  It's Autumn.  I love fall weather.  It doesn't get too hot anymore.  The leaves are changing color.  There's a feeling of crispness in the air.  There's usually not a ton of rain yet.

Although, we've already had a couple of autumn storms come in and they've brought lots of rain and wind.  Normally we just stay in, on days like these. 

But one of Logan's church friends moved into the neighborhood, just 2 doors down in fact.  Logan loves having a friend his age in the neighborhood. One who is a boy and likes to play the same things Logan does and ride bikes.  

So as soon as the neighbor friend is spotted outside each day, I hear, "MOM!  He's outside!  He's outside!  CanIgooutside,Mom,please,Mom,please!?!"

"But it's raining!" I say. 

Apparently, that doesn't matter.  Logan, of course doesn't go to the same school as his friend, so there is only limited play time together.  So I said that he could go out, even though it was raining.  

They ran and splashed and rode there bikes, seeing how far they could turn them around by skidding.

We are sooooo lucky!  We have our very own stream running through our driveway, EVERY time it rains!  

Needless to say he got soaking wet.  

His shoes are still drying out, days later.

Taylor went out in the rain too, but she was wearing a new, long, twirly skirt, so I told her to be extra careful not to get it wet and muddy. 

She, of course obeyed, because that's the kind of girl she is.

Her boots are still drying out too.  

And I poured about a gallon of water out of each boot.

Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?

Me: "Whoooo stole the coooooookies from the cooooookie jar!?!"

Taylor: "It was me."

And apparently Logan too.

Actually, they had permission. Yes, I know they are eating cookies for breakfast.  Yes, we did just get done learning about nutrition.  So we all knew this was not a healthy alternative for breakfast, but oddly enough, we were all willing to take that risk.  

A Great Place to Eat

While sitting at the table, eating yogurt Logan says to me, "Mom, if you're hungry, I know a great place to eat."

I said, "Oh, really.  Where?"

He answered, "At the dining room table!"  

Was that his way of telling me he likes my cooking or that I just purchased an exceptionally tasty brand of yogurt?